The road to recovery: April-September 2021

Leaves are falling… it’s time to find out what the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) and Botanic Garden have been up to over a busy six months. The UCM museums began April 2021 as we did the April before: closed to the public in accordance with England’s national lockdown. Since then, as the country has begun to emerge from COVID-19… Read full article

Student artwork; abstract blue and white watercolour

The Art of Science: Bringing back practical learning at the Polar Museum

Artist educator Alice White has been working with the team at the Polar Museum to discover how the spirit of exploration connects artistic and scientific enquiry. The impulse to question, experiment, and communicate our knowledge and experience is shared by artists and scientists alike. This project aims to show that cross-disciplinary collaboration leads to greater understanding and new perspectives. Alice… Read full article

Z 7106 A. Square headed brooch set with garnets and decorated with "chip carved" zoomorphic ornament in Salin’s style I.

Masks and Monsters: Decoding Anglo-Saxon Metalwork

Do you ever feel like you’re being watched? A pair of eyes amongst the bracken, a shadowy silhouette in the moonlight, the Queen of England on your toast? The phenomenon is called pareidolia: the product of a paranoid brain. Human minds are constantly searching for patterns and meaning in the world around them; sometimes seeing a face in the trees… Read full article